Another Christmas Layout

Just a quick post to show a layout I did yesterday using some new 7Gypsies papers my sister got me for Christmas, plus my new "Sew Easy" tool from We R Memory Keepers from my hubby.

These pics are of my youngest son meeting Bugs Bunny at "Holiday in the Park" at Six Flags Over Texas last year. What a fun day! :)

Evan's Little League Book

I've been wanting to try a photo book from Shutterfly for a long time now. When they sent me an email offering me a FREE book (only had to pay shipping), I had to do it! I gotta say...it was so easy, so fun, and I LOVE the way it turned out!

Sports pictures are kinda hard for me to scrap. Since I take so many of them, there are always tons that never make it to the scrapbook. So, here was the perfect solution! I used ALL but 6 photos that I took last season. All I had to do was drag and drop my photos, and then add captions and titles. So easy!

Click here to view this photo book larger

It's Sneak Peek Time!

January 2011...only days away! Can you believe that?! Is it just me, or did 2010 completely and totally FLY by??! Wow.

Well, a new month is on the horizon, so you know what that means...the January Kits for The Scrap Room will be available for purchase soon.

I got to use the Bella Blvd "Lovey Dovey" portion of the kit for my Sneak Peek layout. The design team was given Sketch #156 from Sketch Inspiration for our Sneak Peek layouts. Here is mine:



I LOVE this sweet picture of my youngest son, Aaron. This was taken on his first night at home, after his first bath at home. Ahh....I can still smell the pink Baby Magic. Definitely one of my most favorite smells in the world. Add it to a squeaky clean, brand new precious baby...and I am in heaven! :)

By the way, The Scrap Room is sponsoring Sketch Inspiration this week and has donated a FANTASTIC kit as a prize....so be sure and head over to SI and complete the sketch for this week, as well as upload it to the gallery for your chance to win!

Happy Monday, everyone.

New Sketch Book!

As many of you know, my sister Trisha runs a great ning site called Sketch Inspiration. Each week, she posts a beautiful, inspiring new sketch. If you complete that sketch and upload your page to the gallery, you have the chance of winning an awesome weekly prize!

Trisha has taken all the sketches from this year, as well as some exclusive BONUS sketches, and has complied the cutest little spiral-bound 6x6 sketch book you will ever see! This little book will be SO handy to throw in the crop bag for when you scrap away from home....and it will take up so little space on your scrap table if you choose to use it at home. It's great!

If you'd like to order one for only $14, please email her at trishahill76@hotmail.com.

ALL proceeds go towards paying for the Ning site since the site is no longer free of charge.

The books are going fast, so hurry and order yours today for 52+ weeks of awesome layout inspiration!! :)

From Me to You

Please Vote!

Hey everybody!

I've got a favor to ask. One of my layouts has been picked as a finalist on the Scrapbooks, Etc. website photo contest. If you have a minute, please click on the link below and vote for my "Building a Snowman" page (shown above).

PLEASE CLICK HERE TO VOTE

You can vote ONCE per day, and you can post it on Facebook and have your friends and family vote too! I would greatly appreciate the help.

Thank you! :)

Party Pooper

I've been to EIGHT parties since last Wednesday. That's right. EIGHT parties in a matter of FOUR days. I'm officially party pooped!

-Preschool Party on Wednesday
-Preschool Teachers Luncheon/Party on Wednesday
-Evan's school party on Friday
-Church leadership party on Friday night
-Birthday party on Saturday
-Mom's Family Christmas party on Saturday night
-Church Luncheon/Party today
-Birthday party after the church party today

Whew! That's a bunch of parties. Hopefully, though, that's it for this holiday season.

On my "free day" this past week (Thursday), I went to my mom's house, and we baked ALL.DAY.LONG. We made tons of stuff:
-mint brownies
-white chocolate and sprinkle covered pretzels
-peanut butter bon bons
-butterscotch spice cookies
-chocolate chip cookies
-chocolate drizzled graham crackers
-double decker fudge (chocolate and peanut butter)

And probably something else I'm not remembering. The good thing about baking all day is that after being around the stuff all day, you are tired of looking at it and don't want to eat it! HA!

Anyway....I'm hoping things will chill out for a while. I'll be finishing up Christmas shopping hopefully tomorrow, so after that, I'm hoping we can relax and enjoy the rest of the holiday.

I hope you all are enjoying the busyness of the season! :)

Today I....

-Am exhausted from our preschool Christmas party this morning. Sugar rushed kids....'nuff said.

-Just raked up 3 big bags of leaves from our backyard.

-Am LOVING this 81 degrees weather we are having in Texas today (on Dec. 15!!)

-Feel like being productive, but lack the motivation to do so.

-Am freaking out a little over all the Christmas gifts I still need to buy (only 10 days away!)

-Don't want to cook supper.....Hubby just informed me we're having pizza at church tonight. Good deal.

-Need to go get dressed for Children's Church right now.

-Wish I had some clear and definite answers to a lot of decisions I need to make.

-Am SUPER excited that hubby gets 2 weeks off for Christmas, starting this weekend! :)

-Plan on watching some good ol' Ally McBeal reruns on TV tonight (thank you, DVR).

-Am hoping that my blog readers will delight me with some nice blog comments! :)

A Few Christmas Layouts

I've done a few more Christmas layouts recently and wanted to share.

This first one is based on this week's sketch, Sketch #154, from my sister's sketch site called Sketch Inspiration. If you are looking for a great, inspirational sketch site to use, SI is the one!



This one was based on a sketch by Liz Qualman:



And lastly, this one is based loosely on a sketch by Susan Stringfellow:



Oh yes, I've been counting on sketches to get me caught up on my Christmas scrapping from last year's photos! ;) No shame.

December Kit from The Scrap Room

Here are my projects I made with the December kit from The Scrap Room. I made a few more than my "requirements" this month, but I just couldn't resist....this was one of my favorite kits so far, and I have a TON of pics from last holiday season to scrap still!

Here's what you will receive in the December kit:

BASICGREY JOVIAL:
* 1 sheet Button Nose (2-sided)
* 1 sheet Coal (2-sided)
* 1 sheet Pomegranate (2-sided)
* 2 sheets American Crafts Brown Sugar Cardstock
* 1 sheet Jovial Chip Stickers (varies)
* (3) Jovial Pieces (varies)






CRATE PAPER SNOW DAY:
* 1 sheet Festive (2-sided)
* 1 sheet Candy (2-sided)
* 1 sheet Melt (2-sided)
* 2 sheets Sea Glass Bazzill Cardstock
* 5-6 pieces Snow Day LAYERED Chipboard (varies)




JILLIBEAN SOUP CHRISTMAS SOUP:
* 1 sheet Turkish Bay Leaf (Kraft background)
* 1 sheet White Sugar (Kraft background)
* 1 sheet Sweet Christmas (Kraft background)
* 2 sheets American Crafts White Cardstock
* (3) Melissa Frances Chenille Candy Canes
* (1) Melissa Frances Paper Bag & Tag (varies)
* approx. 1 yard Red Striped Bakers Twine




GIRLS PAPERIE TINSEL & TWIG:
* 1 sheet Tinsel & Twig (2-sided)
* 1 sheet Festive Brocade (2-sided)
* 1 sheet Holly Berry Floral (2-sided)
* 2 sheets American Crafts Black Cardstock
* (1) 6"x 12" Tinsel & Twig Alphabet Sticker Sheet (varies)
* (1) 6"x 12" Tinsel & Twig Elements Sticker Sheet (varies)
* 1/3 sheet Tinsel & Twig Tiny Words Sticker Sheet (varies)







How's that for one awesome loaded kit?!?!??!

Plus, I still have plenty left for some quick cards and maybe another layout or two. Ask Santa for a kit club subscription to The Scrap Room this Christmas! :)

Our Advent Calendars

Countdown/Advent calendars are all the rage these days, it seems! I've seen some super cute ones out there, and what a fun tradition.

A few years ago, I found some Christmas tree shaped box holders at Starbucks. They had little boxes inside, each filled with a candy. I bought 2 of them and altered the fronts of the boxes with scrap supplies and Decoupage, numbering each one. These became our little countdown boxes for my boys...and this quickly became their favorite tradition! :)

I have so much fun trying to find little things to fill each box with. Somedays, it'll be something simple like a piece of candy. Other days, I'll have something too big to fit in the boxes, so I'll write something on the piece of paper like, "Christmas Game," and we will all play a little game of Christmas themed Bingo or something like that.

Each boy has his own calendar, and they wake up in the morning asking if I've put something in them for the current day yet! lol I LOVE their excitement over these little things! Any kind of little cheap Christmas-themed party favor works great for these.

Some of the goodies I've hidden inside:
-Miniature holiday Hershey bars
-Mighty Beanz (my boys collect these)
-Piece of paper with "Christmas Craft" written on it (I find cheap little crafts to do from Dollar Tree, etc.)
-Piece of paper with "Family Christmas Movie Night" written on it (we will all sit down and watch a Christmas movie together)
-Christmas colored Sixlets candies
-Quarters, nickels, or dimes (we have put the money straight into piggy banks in the past, but this year I think we will take the money and let the boys put it into Salvation Army buckets at the stores)
-Holiday bubbles
-Piece of paper with "Bake Holiday Cookies" written on it
-Piece of paper with "Christmas Game" written on it (I found a Christmas Bingo game at Target Dollar Spot, "Santa Says" instead of "Simon Says", etc.)
-Piece of paper with "Go look at Christmas lights" written on it (we will all load up in the car and go look at the lights around town)

There are several tiny toys at Dollar Stores and other places that fit nicely inside these little boxes. Each day holds a new surprise, and no matter how little or insignificant they may be....this tradition has given us some very fun times in our home!

Do you do Advent/Countdown calendars at your home? Have any suggestions as to what can be put inside these boxes?

Scrapbooking through the Pain

Ever have one of those layouts that is painful to scrap? One that you find yourself tearing up over while you are putting it together or while you are writing the journaling? One that has pictures that make your heart ache? This one was one of those for me:



Journaling:
If we had only known that this was our last Christmas with both Uncle Rick and Great Grandaddy...we would have hugged just a little tighter. We would have taken just a few more pictures. We would have visited just a little while longer. We would have loved just a little more deeply. We would have cherished our time together just a little bit more.

In our hearts forever...
Virgil E. Moore, Jr. - 1930-2010
Richard Moore - 1955 - 2010


This was a rough year for my husband's side of the family. We lost both his uncle and his grandfather within months of each other. Looking back on these family pictures from last year's Christmas makes my heart ache, but at the same time they make me feel thankful. I'm glad I got these photos because they capture this side of the family so well. We always do one serious group shot and one silly group shot. The photo on the far right is the silly one. Grandaddy, sitting lovingly with his arm around Grandmamma, is waving at the camera. Makes me smile. :) But makes my eyes water too.

There will be two empty spots in the photos this year. Our family is no longer "complete." However, I'm so thankful my boys had the chance to know their great grandfather and great uncle. I hope that photos like these will remind them of the fun times we had with them.

This is why scrapbooking is so important to me. These little captured memories that may have otherwise never been. The documentation of moments with our loved ones that we are so blessed to have, for we never know when it will be our last captured memory with them.

Cherish your holidays and every day with your family and loved ones. Take their picture. Take lots of them. Take a big group shot with everyone one in it. Visit a little longer than you had planned. Hug them a little tighter when it comes time for everyone to leave. Tell them how much you love them, and teach your children about the importance of what it means to be FAMILY. Never take for granted the time you've been given with your loved ones. You never know when that time will be no more.